Quote of the Week "Change is like a curve in the highway, it is not the end of the road unless you forget to turn

Here we go

Quote of the Week: "Change is like a curve in the highway, it is not the end of the road unless you forget to turn." (From Skymall magazine)

Welcome to yet another inspiring, exciting, motivating, (and any other applicable adjective that fits)

edition of "Hello Fridays". I am actually on time with this one, so buckle up for some inspiration and humor. (This issue will be shorter than the last one (and proof read) due to a stern rebuke from my lovely wife, Diane)

In Increasing Measure

This month I'm studying II Peter. After only a few readings, I have discovered the secret to a full and productive Christian walk:

verse 5-8 (NIV)

"…make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities IN INCREASING MEASURE, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Pretty clear huh?!?

faith

goodness

knowledge

self-control

perseverance

godliness

kindness

love

IN INCREASING MEASURE

makes you

Effective and Productive.

You see I want to be effective and productive in my faith. So I need to continually evaluate and make sure I'm growing in these areas. I need to have more self-control than I did last year. I need to be more Godly than I was last week. I need to know more about God than I did even yesterday. In order for me to accomplish these things, I have to plan for them;, I have to work at them, I have to yield to God's holy spirit as he fashions me, molds me, conforms me into the very image of Christ (Roman 8:29).

Here is my challenge to you - learn the 8 things listed above from 1 Peter 5-8. Formulate a strategy so that you can increase continually in each area. Then faithfully pursue it. Remember these are the keys to being effective and productive in your faith.

For the Politically Minded

This interesting look at the way things seem to go in today's world was sent in by Dave Burris:

(I don't necessarily agree or disagree with any of the political stuff. I'm just forwarding it along allowing you to draw your own conclusions.)

The Original Version:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

The New Liberal Version:

It starts out the same, but when winter comes, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and

starving. CBS, NBC and ABC show up and provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to film of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that, in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Then a representative of the NAAGB (The National Association for the Advancement of Green Bugs) shows up on NightLine and charges the ant with "Green Bias" and makes the case that the grasshopper is the

victim of 30 million years of greenism. Kermit the frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when he sings "It's Not Easy Being Green." Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on the CBS Evening News and tell a concerned Dan Rather that they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the Reagan summers, or as Bill refers to it, the "Temperatures of the 80's". Richard Gephardt exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the "back of the grasshopper", and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share". Finally the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism Act", RETROACTIVE to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary gets her old law firm to

represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare moms who can only hear cases on Thursday afternoon between 1:30 and 3:00 PM when there are no talk shows scheduled. The ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in - which just happens to be the ant's old house - crumbles around him since he

doesn't know how to maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. And on the TV, which the grasshopper bought by selling most of the ant's food, they are showing Bill Clinton standing before a wildly applauding group of Democrats announcing that a new era of "Fairness" has dawned in America.

On the Silly Side

(sent in by Eric Kriby)

Recently reported in the Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers Journal, the following are questions actually asked of witnesses by attorneys during trials and, in certain cases, the responses given by

insightful witnesses.

1. "Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?"

2. "The youngest son, the twenty-year old, how old is he?"

3. "Were you present when your picture was taken?"

4. "Were you alone or by yourself?"

5. "Was it you or your younger brother who was killed in the war?"

6. "Did he kill you?"

7. "How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?"

8. "You were there until the time you left, is that true?"

9. "How many times have you committed suicide?"

10. Q: "So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?"

A: "Yes."

Q: "And what were you doing at that time?"

11. Q: "She had three children, right?"

A: "Yes."

Q: "How many were boys?"

A: "None."

Q: "Were there any girls?"

12. Q: "You say the stairs went down to the basement?"

A: "Yes."

Q: "And these stairs, did they go up also?"

13. Q: "Mr. Slatery, you went on a rather elaborate honeymoon, didn't you?"

A: "I went to Europe, Sir."

Q: "And you took your new wife?"

14. Q: "How was your first marriage terminated?"

A: "By death."

Q: "And by who's death was it terminated?"

15. Q: "Can you describe the individual?"

A: "He was about medium height and had a beard."

Q: "Was this a male, or a female?"

16. Q: "Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?"

A: "No, this is how I dress when I go to work."

17. Q: "Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?"

A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people."

18. Q: "All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to?"

A: "Oral."

19. Q: "Do you recall the time that you examined the body?"

A: "The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.."

Q: "And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?"

A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was

doing an autopsy."

20. Q: "You were not shot in the fracas?"

A: "No, I was shot midway between the fracas and the navel."

21. Q: "Are you qualified to give a urine sample?"

A: "I have been since early childhood?"

Final Word from Ken

I hope that wasn't too long. If you see Diane (my lovely wife), say something like: "My, wasn't Hello Fridays just the right length?" Have a great two weeks. I'm still experimenting with a graphics version. It will come as Word document. If you are having trouble getting it to open, please e-mail me back and let me know - thanks. For those of you on juno and other text only services - never mind.

Lord Bless - Ken